Starting point at 2nd December cafeteria – check

Empty desert when everyone is on vacation – check

Getting up at 5am mid week – oh well  coffee can fix this

After all the preconditions for a great trip into the empty Sharjah desert are met, all the fellas met on time, ready to rock.

We started the warmup in the high dunes directly next to the meeting point, making sure that everyone was wide awake. Up, down, and all around, this area always brings a big smile to everyone’s face. From here, we went straight to the climbs around pink rock and a wide arch towards Chefs Bowl to make our first break.

A slightly heated Patrol gave us a longer break, which was welcomed by all. It allowed us to take a short breather and then fully wake up.

Once rested, Marko decided to test us and roll off in formation, then switch the lead positions, while driving through Chef’s bowl. A dead battery in a radio made coordination difficult but not impossible. As nothing but perfection is accepted, we did a 2nd round after we replaced the discharged radio and it worked like a charm.

From here on, we upped the pace and made our way toward Big Red, looking for all the big dunes along the way we could find. Climbs, twists, and turns at high speed require a lot of attention, so it was just a matter of time before concentration slips and we would encounter a 2nd try or two.

Getting close to big red, we used the flat lands to do turns at high speed, focusing on the tap tap technique to get the car around between dunes. It was interesting to watch and showed how fast we can move, and that you can get a popout as well. Once this one was fixed, we moved on to make our target and conquer big red.

It was a fun drive, with some epic early morning dunes and later a fast paced run.

Thanks Steven to step in as 2nd lead. I hope to see you all again soon on the sand.